One 77-year-old’s search for the truth: 9/11, election fraud, illegal wars, Wall Street criminality, a stolen nuke, the neocon wars, control of the U.S. government by global corporations, the unjustified assault on Social Security, media complicity, and the "Great Recession" about to become the second Great Depression. "The most important truths are hidden from us by the powerful few who strive to steal the American dream by keeping We the People in the dark."

Friday, December 21, 2012

THIS IS MY 959th POST SINCE JANUARY 2007, WHEN I FIRST BEGAN BLOGGING AMERICA'S CONCEALED DESCENT INTO FASCISM AND THUS THE U.S. GOVERMENT'S BECOMING OF, BY, AND FOR THE BANKSTERS, GIANT CORPORATIONS, AND THE KLEPTOCRATS THAT HEAD THEM -- CONCEALED FROM "WE THE PEOPLE" BY THE HEAR-NO-EVIL, SEE-NO-EVIL, SPEAK-NO-EVIL "MAINSTREAM" MEDIA. I BELIEVE THAT MY LONG SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH QUALIFIES ME TO VET AS TRUE THE DISMAL PREDICTION YOU WILL READ BELOW ...UNLESS WE THE PEOPLE TAKE TO THE STREETS IN VERY LARGE NUMBERS.

Obama/Boehner Two-StepBoth parties on board to destroy America's social contract.by Stephen LendmanPrevious articles explained fiscal cliff duplicity in detail. At
issue is destroying America's social contract. Both parties agreed early
in Obama's first term. They plan killing it incrementally by a 1,000
cuts.Class war rages. Private wealth and power are pitted against
essential public needs. Property rights, individualism, and free-market
mumbo jumbo hammer ordinary people mercilessly. Neoliberal harshness
reflects it.Warren Buffet once said, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's winning."Obama, Boehner and complicit congressional leaders agree. Plans are
to give corporations and America's privileged class more. Unprecedented
wealth extremes will widen. Public needs will grow. Shared sacrifice is one-way. Both parties
concur. Obama and Boehner publicly dance around what both leaders agreed
on months or years ago. Media scoundrels pretend otherwise.On September 19, 2011, economist Richard Wolff headlined his Guardian op-ed "The truth about 'class war' in America," saying:"Republicans claim (Obama's) millionaire tax is 'class war.' The reality is that the super-rich won the war" long ago.Tax hike fear-mongering claims:(1) raising them "amount(s) to un-American 'class warfare,' pitting"
ordinary Americans against corporations and super-rich elites; and(2) tax hikes negatively affect productive investment and job creation.Evidence proves otherwise. Post-WW II, every personal income dollar
raised was matched by $1.50 on business profits. Now it's 25 cents.Ordinary households bear today's burden. Social justice are
four-letter words. Corporations pay increasingly less. Nominally from
1989 - 2007, they paid 24.7% of profits. Since 2010, they averaged
12.4%. In reality, many pay much less.Obama/Boehner's grand bargain assures new cuts. Obama's on record
favoring lower corporate taxes. Expect nominal reductions from today top
35% rate to 28%. What's paid, of course, is much less.

Sometime next year, major tax code revisions will be quietly
announced. Discussions about them are concealed. Otherwise, major social
benefit cuts would look like double-dealing duplicity to fund corporate
largese. More on what's coming below.Wolff said US taxes over the last half century saw "a massive double
(burden) shift from the richest individuals to everyone else."Corporations and super-rich elites won America's class war. Everyone else lost out.On December 13, Wolff revisited the topic. His Guardian op-ed headlined "Class war redux: how the American right embraced Marxist struggle," saying:Republicans and conservatives used to say little about "classes and
class warfare." America is a "classless" society, they claimed.Most Americans are "wondrously comfortable and secure consumers,"
they say. Harsher views now prevail. Unguarded moments reveal them.

Prime targets are called "moochers." Romney called them "the 47%" always voting Democrat."Moochers" depend on government handouts, they claim. They include
contractual federal obligations. They're for qualified eligible
recipients. Social Security and Medicare aren't entitlements. They're not
welfare. They're insurance policies. They're funded by worker/employer
payroll tax deductions. Social Security provides retirement, disability, survivorship, and
death benefits. It's America's most effective poverty reduction program.It's worked remarkably well since inception. It once provided secure
inflation-adjusted retirement or disability income. Manipulated CPI
numbers erode annual amounts received. It protects personal savings. It avoids risky private investments. It's not going broke. When properly administered, it's sound and
secure. Over time, it needs only modest adjustments. Doing so properly
keeps it viable in perpetuity.Medicare is America's largest health insurance program. Tens of
millions are covered. Everyone over 65 and some younger disabled people
qualify. So do others of all ages with end-stage renal disease.Obama/Boehner/complicit congressional leaders/and corporate America
want both programs privatized and eroded en route to ending them in
their present form. They want Medicaid and public pensions treated the
same way.Death by a 1,000 cuts is policy. Expect it to play out over the next decade.

Both parties support class warfare. They want people most in need
denied help. They want government reduced to militarism, national
defense, homeland security, and defending corporate and super-rich
privileges.They want everyone else spurned, on their own, sink or swim. At issue
is destroying America's social contract by neoliberal austerity.Democrats feign resistance. It's cover for what they agreed on years
ago. Obama's fully on board. He's corporate America's point man. His people-friendly persona masks his diabolical dark side. No pun
intended. He's contemptuous of popular needs. He heads the fight to
destroy them.Battle lines are drawn. Ordinary people are in the crosshairs. Political theater conceals what's coming. Both sides agreed on $4 trillion in largely domestic cuts over the
next decade. It's for starters. Quietly they're on board for much more.

Deficit cutting urgency is a ruse. Whatever amounts are cut, annual
deficits will rise exponentially. Cutting them depends on sound policies
both parties spurn.They include ending permanent US wars, cutting defense spending
sharply, shutting down overseas bases, reinstating progressive taxes,
and making corporations and large investors pay their fair share.Most important is putting money power back in public hands where it
belongs. Doing so ensures long-term, inflation-free prosperity. It's
possible with minimal taxes on ordinary people.Good policy isn't rocket science. It's time-tested effective. What
worked in other countries and colonial America can be replicated now.
Both parties reject it. They have other fish to fry. Their plans involve thirdworldizing America. Political theater will
unveil it step by step. Obama agreed to $1.2 trillion in largely
domestic yearend cuts.Boehner raised his initial $800 billion to $1 trillion. Expect
agreement on around $1.1 trillion. Simpson-Bowles recommended it two
years ago for starters. All parties have much more in mind.Boehner's on board for modest tax increases on incomes of $1 million
or more. Obama suggests $400 million. Expect compromise around $600
million. On average it's what America's 1% earns.Word awaits on expected tax revenues raised v. bracket manipulation
and specific spending cuts. Expect Medicare and Medicaid to be hit
hard. Final deal terms may mandate around $500 million cut from Medicare
alone. Expect it mostly in higher Part B and Part D deductibles and
copays.Defense increases, not cuts, are planned. War profiteers rest easy.
Reductions will come from weapons systems Pentagon officials don't want,
overseas troop drawdowns, and veterans benefits most of all.

Retirees will pay higher healthcare premiums and co-pays. Overall
benefits will be cut. Promises made were broken. Neoliberal harshness
targets them like other Americans. Even wounded and disabled vets
increasingly are on their own."Broadening the tax base" is code language for major code revisions coming. Ordinary people will be hit hardest. Expect mortgage deduction caps, state and local tax deduction limits,
less allowed for charitable and medical insurance deductions, lower
education credits, raising the Social Security retirement age to 67 or
higher, and other ways to squeeze America's middle class and least
advantaged.Obama and Boehner feign negotiations. They're on board in principle.
Public two-stepping is deceptive. Deal parameters and terms were agreed
on long ago.Corporate bosses are on board. Obama's been meeting with them
multiple times weekly. Tax relief, greater handouts, and other
incentives bought their support. What they back becomes policy.Key bosses matter most. They're lobbying Congress for Obama. Heavy
lifting is done. Final details await announcement. Most planned cuts are
backloaded. They'll begin in 2014 or 2015. Others will kick in later.

December 31/January 1 are fictitious deadlines. Cuts can come any time. They can be made retroactive to yearend.March 27, 2013 is a real deadline. America runs out of money when its
debt ceiling is reached. US law requires Congress authorize borrowing
limits to fund federal programs. Doing it means raising the ceiling by late March or sooner. Expect
agreement in principle by year end. Details come later. Two-stepping
continues. Media scoundrels provide background music. Corporate approval sealed a done deal. Neither side of the isle dares disagree. Campaign contributions depend on going along. Money talks. In
Washington it buys influence. It demands consigning America's social
contract to history's trash bin. Middle class and disadvantaged households are increasingly on their own. Harder than ever hard times await them.A Final CommentIn 2009, the Nobel Committee continued its long/inglorious tradition. Another war criminal got its peace prize. Obama followed Henry Kissinger, Shimon Peres, Yitkak Rabin, Menachem
Begin, Al Gore, Kofi Annan, three other US warrior presidents, and other
candidates deserving harsh condemnation.On December 19, Time magazine added another award. Obama became its
person of the year for the second time. It called him "both the symbol
and in some ways the architect of this new America."

It omitted saying he helped make it unsafe and unfit to live in. It ignored his war on humanity, his police state governance, his kill
list, his self-appointment as judge, jury and executioner, and his
self-designating himself power to have any US citizen arrested and
imprisoned uncharged indefinitely for life. It forgot about numerous other violations of international, US
statute and constitutional laws. So many exist, it's hard remembering
them all. Instead of denouncing his rogue governance, it praised what
causes so much harm to so many.It shouldn't surprise. In 1938, Time named Hitler person of the year.
In 1939, Stalin followed. Future Nazi collaborator Pierre Laval won in
1931. So did Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh in 1927. In 1937, facist Chinese leader Chaing Kai-shek was Time's choice.
Kissinger, Nixon, GHW Bush, Bill Clinton twice, Newt Gingrich, GW Bush
twice, and Bernanke were future inglorious choices among others.Perhaps Netanyahu will win next year. Qualifying depends on
colonizing all valued parts of Palestine he doesn't yet control. Perhaps
he's pushing overtime to meet Time's deadline.

----*----

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at Email address removed . His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.htmlVisit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to
cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive
Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US
Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are
archived for easy listening.http://www.dailycensored.com/obamaboehner-two-step/

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About Me

B.S. in Physics, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1960 Ph.D. in Physics, Brown University, 1966. Fellow, American Physical
Society. Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Fellow, American Ceramic Society. Member, Geological Society of America, Research Physicist at Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Washington, DC,
1967-2001. Fulbright-García Robles Fellow at Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México, 1997. Invited Professor of Research at Universités
de Paris-6 & 7, Lyon-1, et St-Etienne (France) and Tokyo Institute
of Technology, 2000-2004. Adjunct Professor of Materials Science and
Engineering, University of Arizona, 2004-2005. Consultancy: impactGlass
research international, 2005-present.
Winner, one national and two international research awards and honored
by Brown University with a "Distinguished Graduate School Alumnus
Award." Author, 198 papers in peer-reviewed journals and books, Principal Author of 114 of these.